Note: Out of all of the many, many journalists, commentators, and political professionals, from neocon to liberal, currently ventilating the storyline that Donald Trump is Putin's Man and Hillary Clinton is Gen. MacArthur (discussed here), none that I know of has expressed the slightest interest or concern about an alarming case of international importance that has the earmarks of a realtime Russian operation against a fearless critic of the Putin regime. 

I refer to the plight of the fearless critic of Soviet and Russian dictatorship, Vladimir Bukovsky, currently fighting to save his heroic reputation in a legal struggle that many believe has its origins in Moscow.

Here is a run-down on the great Bukovsky's case from May: "Bukovsky vs. the British Crown -- vs. the Kremlin?" 

Here is a new website set up to track the case, vladimirbukovsky.com, which includes the following timelime of events (links in the original)

11 Jul 2006 The Times publishes a letter by Vladimir Bukovsky and high-ranking Russian secret service defector Oleg Gordievsky, titled Licence to Kill. It claims Putin has two new laws that, when used together, make it legal in Russia for the government to kill critics abroad as "extremists."

1 Nov 2006 Alexander Litvinenko and Mario Scaramella are poisoned. Scaramella, an Italian security expert testifying on Russian infiltration into Italy's government, lives.

23 Nov 2006 Alexander Litvinenko dies of polonium poisoning.

2 Dec 2006 The Guardian reports that Scaramella had shown Litvinenko a "hit list" leaked from FSB email, with himself, Litvinenko and Bukovsky among the five men listed.

2 Nov 2007 Gordievsky is poisoned in Surrey.

23 March 2013 Boris Berezovsky, an ex-pat Russian billionaire also on the list, is found dead in his home. The death is ruled a suicide.

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22 Jul 2014 Litvinenko Inquiry into his murder announced. Bukovsky is summoned as a witness.

28 Oct 2014 Law enforcement seizes Bukovsky's laptop at his home.

17 Mar 2015 Bukovsky testifies in a Litvinenko Inquiry hearing. He explains new Russian laws, recounts death threat phone calls to Litvinenko which he overheard, and concludes, "I am pretty sure it was done on orders from Kremlin." This was the conclusion of the Inquiry as well.

27 Apr 2015 Crown Prosecution Service publishes press release announcing charges against Bukovsky: "making [sic] and possessing indecent images." This is the source of the libel trial.

24 Aug 2015 Bukovsky sues CPS for libel over the wording of its press release.

16 May 2016 Bukovsky's criminal trial is postponed until December 2016.

25 July 2016 Bukovsky v. CPS libel trial scheduled to begin.

Missing from this timeline is Bukovsky's extremely grave illness in 2015, which in threatening his life also threatened, of course, his ability to fight for his reputation. Miraculously, he recovered enough by the end of the summer of 2015 to sue the CPS for libel. When prevented from scheduling his libel trial before his criminal trial, Bukovsky took the extraordinary measure in May 2016 of undertaking a hunger strike. As noted in the timeline, his criminal trial was, indeed, postponed until the end of the year.  

On Thursday, July 28, a judgment in Bukovsky's libel suit against the CPS will be handed down.